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Tips for living your best caveman life in 'Far Cry Primal'

Life seems so much simpler for cavepeople. You wake up, wander out of your door-less hole in the ground, swing a club at a deer or two and roast up some fresh venison over an open fire. It sounds positively idyllic.

Don't be fooled. The world of 10,000 B.C. portrayed in Far Cry Primal is a harsh place, filled with sabretooth tigers and cave bears and cannibalistic neanderthal tribes that all want to make a meal out of you. The enemies you face in the game might not have guns, but neither do you. Survival requires effort.

Effort and assistance. That's why you're here, after all. We've spent more than 25 hours running around in Primal's prehistoric world, and we have some advice to share with all you would-be cavepeople out there.

1. Stick to the story for the first hour or two

The opening bits of Far Cry Primal railroad you through some important story exposition while also teaching the fundamentals of Takkar's — that's your caveman avatar — hunter/gatherer existence. Just go with it.

There's really not much of a choice at first, with opening scenes that teach you how to move, how to hunt, and how to track wounded animals and find resources using "hunter vision." You also get a taste of the main weapons you'll rely on over the course of the game: a club, a spear and a bow.

Meet Tensay, your 'Far Cry Primal' shaman and drug-pusher.

Image: Ubisoft

Eventually, you'll get an introduction screen for the "Land of Oros" and your first taste of freedom along with it. Keep on going with the story. Find the green leaves your new ally needs and bring them back to her.

Once that's done, there are two story missions to focus on before you really start to wander and explore. First, get your new village shaman, Tensay, and learn from him how to summon your owl (we'll cover that below).

Next, do the quest to find Wogah, a lost tribemate. He's got the last piece you need to really start exploring: a grappling claw. It's a very handy exploration tool, so get it as early as you can.

2. Don't forget to hunt and gather

Getting better gear is an important part of Far Cry Primal, and to do that you'll need to live like a caveman. Hunt the local wildlife and skin your kills. Collect any plants or rocks that are highlighted yellow in hunter vision.

You can't carry a lot of anything (the game tells you when you're full of a particular item), but you're always using then replenishing your resources. So even if you're full up on something, you can count on that not being the case for long.

Hunting provides a steady source of both meat and animal fat; the former is used to heal yourself and your animal companions while the latter lets you light whatever weapon you're wielding on fire.

When you're hunting, keep hunter vision active and watching for glowing yellow clouds that look like smoke trails. These indicate the path of a "rare" beast, which you can hunt and skin to claim a rare pelt. These animal skins are necessary for some of the game's best upgrades.

If you're specifically looking for rare bitefish — one of the toughest to find — head to the Swaras Outpost in the middle of the map, just south of the snowy region to the north. Follow the nearby river to the north and east from there and you should spot the telltale signs of a rare bitefish swimming around before long.

Everything you collect has a use for upgrading your gear and your village. Early on, prioritize getting your base weapons up to at least their first or second upgrade rank. Also work on improving your arrow quiver, your guts bag (lets you hold more meat, fat and bait) and your pack.

Later on, make sure to grab the sling and any winter clothing upgrades you can from Jayma and Karoosh, respectively, once they join your tribe.

3. Make friends with the local wildlife

Most of the predatory creatures you encounter in Far Cry Primal can be tamed and turned into allies. It's a trick you pick up from Tensay after he joins your tribe.

Once you've tamed a beast, you can summon it at any time (only one at a time). If your four-legged friend dies, you can either spend some of the red leaves you've gathered to revive or simply tame the same type of creature again.

Image: Ubisoft

Each of the three types of beast — canine, big cat and bear — offers different benefits. Wolves and dholes are scouts and scavengers, bringing back resources from downed foes and revealing more of the map. Big cats are stealthy killers. And bears are large and powerful, excelling at both combat and grabbing the attention of nearby foes.

You can also eventually tame the mighty honey badger. It's a nimble-yet-powerful fighter that can revive itself once after being downed in combat.

Note each tamed beast's abilities in the summon menu and use them accordingly. Big cats — particularly the high-stealth rare black jaguar — are great for quietly taking control of enemy outposts and bonfires, both of which create new fast travel points on your map.

Image: Ubisoft

Just note that certain types of animals can't be tamed until you level up that ability. Push to at least get big cats unlocked as early as you can. Stealth is important throughout Far Cry Primal, but it's essential in the early game.

Also note: when you're walking around with an animal ally, most of the other predators in the world will leave you be. That's not always the case, especially if you get too close. But the frequency of random animal attacks on Takkar drops significantly when you've got a pet at your side.

4. Stone age combat

Your three main weapons in Far Cry Primal serve different purposes. The bow is your primary ranged weapon. It's stronger than the sling, but shouldn't be your first choice against armored foes (denoted by a shield icon when you mark them) and tougher animals, such as mammoths.

The spear works as a melee weapon, but it's much more powerful as a ranged attack. You can only carry a handful at a time, though, so save your spears for the toughest of foes and hunts.

The club actually comes in two forms. The one you get during the tutorial is a one-handed weapon that does okay damage against weaker foes and small animals. It'll be your go-to in the early game when range attacks won't cut it.

Image: Ubisoft

Having Karoosh in your tribe lets you craft the two-handed club, which swings slower but delivers more punishment. While the one-handed club does have a speed advantage, there's no need to use them again after you've gotten the two-handed club. The slower swing is more than made up for by the boosted damage.

The important thing to remember about combat in Far Cry Primal: your ammo can be retrieved. Arrows and thrown spears or clubs can be re-used until they break. Even if your pack is full and there's no reason to search downed enemies for supplies, be sure to run over every corpse you create to re-up your ammo supplies.

5. Finding the right skills for your caveman

Just like past Far Cry games, progress in Primal earns you experience points that, in turn, level you up. Each new level grants you a skill point to spend.

Early on in the game, you can't go wrong investing in health-related skills (or really, anything from the "Survival Skills" tree). Gathering Skills are helpful later on, but you can safely ignore them in the opening hours.

Once Tensay's joined your tribe, make sure to grab at least the first two "tame animals" skills as well as (at minimum) Owl: Attack I, so you can dive-bomb enemies from a distance without raising an alarm, as soon as you can.

After those are out of the way, target skills that favor your particular style of play. Karoosh's Fighting Skills tree includes the Beast Rider and Mammoth Rider abilities; those are very useful (and fun!) for getting around quickly.

Jayma's Hunting Skills are handy as well, especially Tag Enemies. The Craft Arrows skills that she offers are essential later on in the game, but you aren't firing enough arrows that you can't retrieve in the early hours to make them worthwhile until later.

6. Outposts, bonfires and expanding your influence

There's a very open-ended structure to the story in Far Cry Primal, but just like past games in the series there are also outposts and bonfires (Primal's take on radio towers) that open up the map and create new fast travel points.

Highlight any of these on the map to check the difficulty of taking over a given location along with any rewards you might unlock for completing it. There's no order you should tackle these in, but obviously the harder ones are going to require better gear.

Image: Ubisoft

Whenever you approach an enemy position, call in your owl to scope out the surrounding area and tag any baddies that may be wandering nearby. As a general rule, the dark the color of a tagged enemy's icon, the lower the threat. Deep-red icons are easily defeated scrubs, but beware of the orange icons.

Assuming you've unlocked your owl's attack skill, target the biggest threat you can find and send the owl in for an easy kill. Watch your bird's cooldown timer, too. You might spend enough extra time circling the camp before you attack to net another few owl kills.

Take note of any white horn icons; they serve as a given settlement's alarm. To take out a horn, either walk up to it and follow the button prompt or (even better) shoot it with a ranged weapon.

Once you've got the lay of the land in your head, start picking apart your targeted settlement one enemy at a time. Your pets are very handy here, since a big cat or a bear causing trouble won't raise an alarm like a loosed arrow will. Also note that pets can be sicced on tagged enemies even if you don't have line of sight.

Stealth is a much more valuable tool in Far Cry Primal than it was in past games, so try to stay out of sight as long as you can while you quietly snuff out all the guards.

Image: Ubisoft

Finally, keep an eye out as you wander the world for secondary quests (marked by an orange icon) and random tribal events. Completing either of these benefits both you and your tribe, with anything from skill point rewards to boosts to your village population.

The larger your village, the more hunting and gathering your people will do for you. Every in-game day that passes — you can rush through by resting at your village or any conquered location — replenishes some of the goods in your Reward Stash, which appears at every fast travel point.

You can collect and make use of Reward Stash contents at any time. They're yours, gifted by the tribe. It's never enough to replace the need to hunt and gather, but it definitely helps.

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